5 Replies to “Lady Gaga vs. Whitney Houston”

Well, ideas aren’t always discrete things; they are often interwoven with other ideas, but these are pretty similar though. Justice, or more correctly the justice system, which sometimes fails us, works in these cases on the basis that it is alright to copy, so long as you ask permission and that the original artist benefits from the use of their work, which can mean acknowledgement, but almost always means royalties, but having said that, the royalties are often exorbitant.

If the case came to court, it wouldn’t be common practice to seize all known copies of the latter and ban the artist from re-recording and performing the song, instead, Lady Gaga, or whoever ‘wrote’ the latter song would have to pay the same amount as if they had acted legally, (but they may need to cover the legal expenses) so this suggests the latter is allowed to exist, but the circumstances surrounding its creation must be righted.

It is legal, but unethical to change it slightly to stay within the law (which technically shouldn’t work, but it can create doubts as to whether it’s a knock-off or just a similar song) and anything in the public domain, where all music goes eventually, can be used by anyone, but credit should still be given. I do like to buy the original song first, in order to support original artists, though.

Wat? no edit feature? Anyhoo I just wanted to add that perhaps musicians should have ‘experts’ on hand to identify similarities and give royalties accordingly. Better than than decide not to release the song.